Kerry manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice admits he felt let down by the attitude of his players as they lost their Allianz League opener to Dublin on Saturday night.

Having been beaten by the Dubs in last year’s All-Ireland final Fitzmaurice expected his team to be properly tuned in and with revenge on their minds.

But aside from a strong spell in the third quarter they were well off the pace set by the Sam Maguire holders and they fell to a six point - 2-14 to 0-14 - reverse at Croke Park.

“I'm a glass half full kind of person but, look, that was a disappointing performance,” he conceded.

“I just felt that if you hadn't seen last year's All-Ireland final and you came in and looked at it, you would have maybe said that we had beaten Dublin and that they were the team that looked hungrier and looked more anxious to prove a point.

“So that was the disappointing thing from our point of view. I felt that our attitude should have been better, our work rate wasn't near good enough.

“Even in possession our accuracy was well off tonight but, no, a poor performance, simple as that.”

Fitzmaurice guided Kerry to the last two All-Ireland finals, beating Donegal to win Sam in 2014, so he sets high standards. And when they aren’t met he is calculating in his analysis.

“You would felt that it was a big carrot for us coming up here, especially having performed so poorly in last year's All-Ireland final and it was a chance for individual players.

“I think we had seven or eight of the lads from last September starting, that they would have been anxious to prove a point but, like I said, Dublin looked hungrier than us which is hard for me to understand.

“We were well beaten and lucky not to have been beaten by more."

Fitzmaurice put some of the poor performance down to the Kingdom’s late return to training following a team holiday earlier this month. He conceded that he would have preferred to have the holiday pre-Christmas but was unable to do so due to local club games scheduled in December.

After a slow start Kerry dragged themselves back into the game and levelled at seven points apiece going in at the break. But within 15 minutes of the restart this contest over thanks to goals from the impressive Paddy Andrews and Diarmuid Connolly, who rattled home a magnificent penalty.

For Dubs boss Jim Gavin, who only started nine of last year’s All-Ireland winning team, there were plenty of positives. He was full of praise for man of the match Andrews, who finished with 1-4 from play, and the returning Paul Mannion, who missed last season due after his Mandarin studies took him to China.

“You probably go into this season a bit unknown how guys will get over the closed season,” said the man who has led the Dubs to two All-Ireland and three League titles in his three season in charge.

“We didn't go back training until the first week in January, so this marks our fourth week back.

“Paddy been training very well and had a good few games in the pre-season O'Byrne Cup. He's one of a number of players that are fighting hard for a place. Obviously Paul Mannion is back now from his travels, doing his B.Comm with UCD through Mandarin.

“He was in China for the year, a great life experience for him, and he's come back a very refreshed and determined player."